October 4 Long Term Memory - Proactive interference : when...

October 4, 2005 Long Term Memory Working within the same 3 stage model as last time Memory is the result of a gradual process Exception is the flashbulb memory, imprinting, and cherry vodka Picking up there… Long term memory The duration is “life long” Penfield experimented with activating memories in the brain Infantile amnesia: we are not able to recall information from infant years The capacity of long term memory is great and can hold tons The more we learn, the more we can learn Forgetting factors 1. We try to hard and it results in encoding or storage failure 2. We fail to make material meaningful or emotional to help us remember Overlearning is rare but can be distracting. Arnold the pig and Shamu are examples of repetitive chains of behavior 3. Retrieval failure 4. Interference factors Two types: proactive, retroactive Retroactive interference : when new learning interferes with previous learning

This preview
has intentionally blurred sections.
Sign up to view the full version.

This is the end of the preview. Sign up
to
access the rest of the document.

Unformatted text preview: Proactive interference : when old learning interferes with new learning These produce primacy and recency effects Primacy : ability to recall the first information you learned, results from proactive interference Recency : ability to recall the newest information, results from retroactive interference Primacy effects are very important in social situations Strategy for solving interference problems Redintegrative memory: when we try to piece together a memory This is the primary memory behind courtroom decisions Problems: 1. difficult to study 2. we see what we have learned to see Just talking about the memory changes it Ex) cars hitting vs. cars smashing Semantic memory We are more likely to remember things if we can organize them into similar categories Average person in America has a vocabulary 8-10,000 words long...
View Full
Document